Here's how the 'revolutionary' Sony Xperia Z5 camera stands up to an iPhone 6s

Sony

Sony sent us their new Xperia Z5 to play with this week.

The Japanese company has put a lot of work into marketing the device's camera, calling it "our best camera phone" and "revolutionary." We have a full review on its way. But first I wanted to compare Z5's much-touted camera to the most well-regarded pocket shooter in the industry: the iPhone 6s.

The first thing you notice with the Z5's camera is the speed of its autofocus feature. Sony claims it'll ready a shot in 0.03 seconds in ideal situations. While I never experienced quite that level of fast, it was remarkable — and noticeably faster than the iPhone 6s.

Below are some images testing the two devices in various situations — outdoors, indoors, in mixed light, and in the dark. The Z5's lens is wider, and its sensor uses a narrower aspect ratio than the 6s. So you'll notice the compositions vary a little between the images. Also, I left both cameras in automatic mode, choosing not to take advantage of the manual settings Sony offers hardcore photographers.

Here's how the two smartphone cameras stacked up.

In broad daylight, there was a surprising degree of difference between the Xperia Z5 and iPhone 6s

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

The iPhone's camera system did a much better job here. An unmoving daylight scene is usually the easiest situation for a camera to nail, but the Z5 made some obvious mistakes.

First, the Z5 went a bit too bright, blowing out the clouds and reducing the overall contrast of the image. It also selected a cooler white balance, taking the punch out of the reflected sunlight and flattening the scene's colors across the board. The iPhone went with a warm tone that lent richness and depth to the image's colors.

Here are segments of each shot blown up to 100% size

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

The Xperia Z5, a 23 megapixel device, offered less detail than the 12 megapixel iPhone 6s. Don't see it? Look at the stars on that American flag. This is partly because the Z5 uses its 23 megapixels less efficiently across a much wider frame, but also because megapixels don't actually matter.

Here's how the two phones handled an indoor scene

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

Again, the Z5 went brighter and cooler. But in this case it improved the shot.

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